


It Happened Last Tuesday

by LemonBubble



Series: NVTR Fics [9]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-08
Updated: 2013-11-08
Packaged: 2017-12-31 20:12:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1035912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LemonBubble/pseuds/LemonBubble
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos has to leave town for science reasons. Turns out the world ended while he was away and Night Vale never got the memo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Happened Last Tuesday

**Author's Note:**

> Night Vale Town Riot Bonus Prompt - The Apocalypse

Carlos had been preparing for this trip for a while. It was his first time travelling out of Night Vale in almost two years and he was very much looking forward to breaking some municipal laws where no one could do anything about it. He was going to really enjoy all the handwriting and sandwiches and whispering he could handle for the week he was away.

His reason for leaving was more than just to enjoy the pleasures of idle lawbreaking, though. Carlos needed to go back to the university to present his findings and apply for an extension on his grant, which was a daunting task since he was pretty sure no one outside of Night Vale would ever believe his research was accurate. He wouldn’t have believed it himself two years ago. Still, Carlos had to try, otherwise he was sure to lose his funding and he would have to leave Night Vale forever, which was something he very much wanted to avoid. He hadn’t actually heard from the university for quite some time, but the meeting had been arranged months ago and since he hadn’t been told it was cancelled, he was assuming it was still on.

Carlos left early in the morning, saying goodbye to a still mostly asleep and slightly upset Cecil. He would have liked to take Cecil with him, show him what it was like out of town, enjoy some casual lawbreaking together, things like that, but Cecil hadn’t been able to get the time off. So Carlos had to go alone, back into what he thought of as the “outside world”, somewhere distinct and different from Night Vale. Somewhere that, now he thought of it, he really hadn’t heard anything about since moving to Night Vale. News from the rest of the world just didn’t get to the town.

So Carlos left Night Vale, alone, wondering if things had changed much since he was last in the real world, and suspecting that they hadn’t.

About an hour out of town the geiger counter started clicking. It was something he had taken to carrying with him everywhere during his time in Night Vale, although it didn’t seem to work properly in town. Now it was lying haphazardly in the back seat of the car. At first it was fine, just the occasional faint click that was only to be expected. When he realised it was clicking and beeping faster as he got further away from Night Vale, _then_ he started paying attention.

Nothing outside the car looked out of the ordinary, but Carlos also realised that he hadn’t passed anyone on the road yet. After a few more minutes he pulled over and checked the geiger counter. It was showing that he was right on the edge of dangerous amounts of radiation. Carlos frowned and shook it gently, moving it around to double check, but it kept reading incredibly high radiation levels. Everything still looked fine, but two years in Night Vale had taught him the value of caution. He went to the back of the car and pulled out a rumpled hazmat suit, something else he had taken to carrying everywhere habitually, although it hadn’t come in handy so far. Now he put it on, just in case, not particularly caring how weird he might look. Not that it mattered, since he hadn’t seen anyone so far.

It was another two hours driving (a little slower than usual - driving in a hazmat suit wasn’t the easiest thing in the world) before Carlos reached the first town outside of Night Vale. At least, he reached what remained of it. The place looked like it had been hit by a massive earthquake or a hurricane or a… bomb. Carlos shook his head. That was ridiculous, why would anyone bomb a small town in the middle of nowhere? And yet, the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like it was an explosion that tore the place apart rather than a natural disaster. That and the geiger counter, which had been making one continuous noise for a solid half hour now.

Carlos drove into town slowly, looking around for signs of life. The place was eerily still and empty. Cars were abandoned on the sides of the road, some lying upside down in unlikely places, like on top of buildings. The buildings themselves looked ready to collapse, some already rubble, others apparently only suffering broken windows. The sound of his car was deafening in the otherwise silent streets.

He kept going, driving slowly, navigating around broken pieces of road, empty cars, and piles of rubble, until he got to the airport. Or, what used to be the airport. There was no way it was still functioning. It looked like, if there really had been a bomb, this was where it hit. Carlos got out of the car and stared. Even through the hazmat suit he could tell that the air felt wrong. He called out a few times, not expecting a response and not getting one.

This was frightening, in a way that nothing in Night Vale was. There had always been a certain permanence to the rest of the world. Carlos could handle the weirdness that was Night Vale when he knew that, beyond its borders, there was a world that followed rules that he understood. But here he was in the real world again and it was… gone. Was all of it gone? Was it just this one town? Carlos had to know.

So he drove, out past that first town, aiming for the next big city. It was only a couple more hours drive away. For a little while, between the two towns, the geiger counter slowed down to only slightly dangerous amounts of clicking. It picked up again when he got closer to the city.

If anything, the city was worse than the town. There were hardly any buildings left standing and the clicking of the geiger counter was even more solid and endless here. The worst thing, though, were the bodies. The town had been empty, but this city was littered with corpses, burned and broken and terrible. It was a scene straight out of a nightmare. Carlos could barely stay long enough to look around, but he did manage to find a few signs hinting at what had happened.

There was graffiti on a wall, declaring the end was nigh. There was a mostly unburned newspaper, half buried in dust and rubble, announcing that the war was getting worse. Carlos hadn’t even known there was a war. He started shaking as he put the pieces together, realising why the university hadn’t contacted him (because there was no university now), remembering that he hadn’t heard from his family for at least a month now. _Oh god_ , his family! His mother, his older sister, his little brother who was only 16. Was there… could they have possibly… Carlos shook his head, not liking where that train of thought was going. Instead he focused on getting back to the car, getting home. In a twist of fate that he would never have seen coming, Night Vale seemed like the safest place in the world right now.

And so Carlos drove, not thinking about anything but getting back to Night Vale, getting back to Cecil. It was five hours, and it seemed like so much longer, alone with his thoughts. He would have texted Cecil but his phone had no service, which made sense considering… the things he was trying very hard not to think about right now. It was dark by the time he got back, and some part of him was afraid that Night Vale would be gone too, but it was still there. Still standing, with its mysterious lights in the sky and the gentle glow of street lamps and fast food signs. Right then, it was the most welcome sight in the world.

He texted Cecil as soon as he could, knowing he was probably at work right now. Cecil’s reply was full of concern, but Carlos refused to explain over texts. When he got home he stripped out of the hazmat suit, switched on the radio and waited, focusing on controlling his breathing and the shaking that wouldn’t go away. He caught the end of the weather and a hasty sign off from Cecil - it was so good to hear his voice, to know he was still there. The few minutes between the show ending and Cecil coming in through the door were far too long, but eventually he was there, sitting on the couch next to Carlos, his arms wrapping around him. Warm, safe, _still there_. Carlos clung to him like he was the only thing left in the world.

Eventually Cecil pulled away a little and looked him in the eye, so concerned, so loving.

“What happened?” He asked gently.

“E-everything’s gone.” Carlos said, embarrassed at the way his voice shook and cracked. “The whole world… there was a war and bombs and there’s just nothing left. The end of the world happened and I didn’t even know.” He practically sobbed out the last few words, the enormity of what he was saying hitting all at once. It was as if saying it out loud had made it more true. Cecil held him close again and ran his fingers through his hair soothingly.

“Not everything is gone.” He said in his confident and reassuring radio voice. “We are still here. Night Vale is still here, and Night Vale will always be here for you, Carlos. I am still here and I will always be here for you. As long as we are here, it is not really the end of the world.”

Carlos finally started to calm down as he listened to Cecil talk. The actual words didn’t matter because it was _Cecil_ and he was still there and he was real and warm and solid and _alive_. It had been a long day and Carlos had spent most of it overwhelmed with fear and grief, but here, in Cecil’s arms, with his head on Cecil’s chest, listening to his voice and his heartbeat, feeling his fingers carding through his hair, here he was safe.

**Author's Note:**

> [unhappy noises about rushed ending]
> 
> Anyway, I noticed that the fics I wrote for the bonus prompt alternate happy/sad/happy/sad. This is a sad one, so the next one will be happy!


End file.
